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- Use / repurpose a pre-packaged course from an OER platform such as Lumen or Saylor Academy. OER platforms can provide all the necessary low/no cost course materials, and many integrate directly with Blackboard.
- Replace your textbook with an open one. The Open Textbook Library is a great place to start - it has books from a number of open publishers (such as OpenStax) along with reviews from teaching faculty.
- Use a variety of open educational resources to meet your course objectives. Some examples would include chapters from OER textbooks, open lab software, Creative Commons or public domain multimedia, and more.
(If you feel your course requires some proprietary material, we strongly suggest you work with the SUNY Broome Library to lower or eliminate costs for students. The Library has books, ebooks, articles, and multimedia databases (e.g. Kanopy, Naxos Music Library), which are freely available to students, faculty, and staff. Please consult with your librarian so that the library can ensure uninterrupted access whenever possible.)
- If there aren't any OERs in the area you're teaching, create some...
On your own (if you're feeling ambitious)
With your colleagues (locally or outside of SUNY Broome
With your students (read about one professor's experience building an anthology of early American literature with her students)
- If you're interested in building OER from existing open materials, or creating new OER, you should be aware of accessibility concerns. The OER Accessibility Toolkit is a useful resource for understanding and evaluating accessibility.